Contribute and Help Others!

Help us to encourage people to liberate their devices and convince app
developers to release their app as Free Software.
The various Free Software initiatives also need help
and we need to ensure that they stay free as in freedom.
If you just want to spread the word about this campaign,
there is promotion material
available for download, translation and ordering.

Operating Systems

Even though other versions of Android are all based on Free Software,
sometimes non-free applications are added to these ROMs.
If you know about non-free software added to LineageOS or other versions of Android,
please let us know about it!
We collect current information in the wiki.

Freeing Non-Free Apps

Unfortunately, there are still some applications that do not have a free
alternative. To use the proprietary app is a bad idea; it takes away
your freedom. Even if you don't
know how to program, you can contact the authors
of crucial apps and ask
them politely for their reasons for not publishing their app as Free
Software. Many apps are available without payments, so money is not
always the dominating reason. Sometimes one email can make a difference
and there have already been successful attempts: The Chess
Walk app for example is now liberated.

Apps That Still Need To Be Liberated

We collect apps that have no free counterpart, but are important to have
on a free system in
our wiki. Please add other essential apps there. People can contact the authors
of those apps and ask them why they are not Free Software.

Responses to Objections We've Heard from App Developers

Only when we understand the motivation of programmers who keep their
apps proprietary, we know what needs to be changed in order to change
their minds and to convince them of liberating their own app. Please contribute
your experiences with developers of non-free apps here and share
useful responses to their objections.

Objection: If I publish my app as Free Software, I
will not be able to make money with it.

You can still offer your app in other markets and ask for money
there.

Offer options for people to donate. Free markets
like F-Droid can include them and their users like to reward.
Depending on your case, you might make more money with donations
than from sales.

Objection: But when my app is Free Software other
people can distribute it without me getting profit.

That is true, but keep in mind that people who don't want to
pay you will always find ways to do so.

If you ask people
in a friendly non-obtrusive way and give them good reasons, they
will give you money.

If you publish your app under a copyleft license like the
GNU GPL,
then you are guaranteed that other people cannot distribute it without
distributing the source code as well. Otherwise it is copyright
infringement and you can contact the app store operator to take it
down.

You could tell people that in order to recognize and support your work,
they should buy your application and not the other copies
that might be distributed by other people.